SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Now that Sarah Palin’s brief and spectacularly ephemeral star has, for now at least, burnt out brilliantly in the international night sky, a small sigh of relief has been exhaled around the world.

But the relief is just as palpable for reasons other than having someone who can’t distinguish between nations and continents at the helm of the world’s most powerful nation. I’m a brunette with a fringe, you see, and I wear spectacles. For reasons entirely to do with slackness and nothing to do with fashion, I very frequently like to pile my hair up on top of my head, albeit for a lot less than a $10,000 a month stylist. For the past two months I’ve had to think twice. I’ve cringed as I’ve walked out the door wearing a red jumper, only to have some wit gafaw at my hair and ask me if I can pronounce “nuclear.”

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They say that success is demonstrated best by how you respond when you get knocked down, and election night 2008 is how America responded

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA — November 4, 2008. The student lounge began filling up at 3.00pm, as the first polls around the country began to close on the East Coast. The flyers advertising the event said that no alcohol would be provided, but nonetheless, cases of beer and bottles of wine had been procured — though hopefully they would be used to toast to victory rather than drown our sorrows.

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Race is still a white hot issue in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — Circa 1987, the flavour of the month for ethnic Malays was the soaking of traditional daggers with the blood of fellow countrymen (Chinese, sweet and sour). The idea of the “Kris drinking Chinese blood” was plastered across placards in a particular rally as the speaker poured gasoline upon a crowd burning with racist hate. As the country hovered on the brink of another racial crisis, a kris was unsheathed, lifted and waved around with gusto — for an Oscar-worthy effect — by the speaker on the podium.

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Newspaper endorsements are an intriguing aspect of elections.  They reveal how well the opposing parties have curried favour with the fourth estate and who the media barons want to cozy up to in order to expand their empires.  Check out this super-charged bubble chart for a visual map of endorsements in the US election.  Like the Intrade prediction markets, where Obama is currently priced at an 85% probability of winning, Obama slaughters McCain in the number of newspaper endorsements: 233 to 105.

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Brief impressions of what Bay Area California is like in the lead up to the elections

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA — I was at the annual Bridge School Benefit concert on the weekend. Organized by Neil Young and held in Mountain View, California, the concert is aimed at raising money for special needs children. Nonetheless, with the presidential elections looming, they couldn’t resist emblazoning, between the various acts, the word “VOTE” on the video screens. Candidates’ names were never spoken by any of the artists that took the stage, but it was blatantly obvious they all shared the same opinion. When Young himself took the stage at the end of the concert, the camera zoomed up on a tiny badge on his jacket. “Hippies for Obama,” it declared, the closest thing to an endorsement all day. “Vote on November 4,” Young declared, and people cheered. Clearly, the audience shared his opinion, too.

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — For one of the first articles on The Backbench, I don’t like writing about bad stuff.  Particularly when it’s about the “R” word.  The reality is, though, Australia will be incredibly lucky if we avoid a recession.  This is despite Australia facing the global financial crisis with 3 strong-looking levies: (1) a relatively strong banking system; (2) a $20bn commodity fueled budget surplus; and (3) China.  However, as the credit crunch continues to corrode the global economy, more and more pressure is being applied to these levies and their resilience is increasingly being tested.

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